Aydin Irmak: Against All Odds, and Without His Bike

Earlier this month, Grayson Schaffer, who for the past six weeks has been reporting from Everest’s Base Camp, wrote a profile about a 46-year-old Turkish New Yorker named Aydin Irmak and his quixotic attempt to carry his beloved 33-pound, steel-frame singlespeed to the top of the world. For various reasons, including problems with his permits and the fact that Irmak had no mountaineering experience, he wasn’t able to realize that goal. Unbelievably, however, as Schaffer reports at the end of his May 21st dispatch, Irmak did himself make it to the summit with the assistance of his Israeli teammate, Nadev Ben Yehuda.